I saw this interesting quote from John Adams on the American
Revolution the other day that I think pertains to the role of New Democracy in
building the current revolutionary movement.

John Adams wrote: "What do we mean by revolution? The war? That
was no part of the revolution. It was only the effect and consequence of it. The
revolution was in the minds of the people, and this was effected from 1760 to
1775. In the course of 15 years this happened before a single drop of blood was
shed at Lexington."

In "the course of human events" -- the 15 years before Lexington
and Concord -- the colonists came to see the necessity and the possibility of "dissolving the bands" that held them to England and creating society on a new
basis, reflecting the current of new ideas and possibilities which were exciting
people's minds at the time in the Colonies and Europe.

Revolution was made possible by the new theories of human
society that had gained currency. "Man is born free but is everywhere in
chains," wrote Rousseau, speaking not only to the oppressive nature of
aristocratic society, but of the natural goodness of human beings. It was only
because Man is naturally good that society's institutions could be seen as
oppressive, and only because Man is naturally good that a better world is
possible.

The ideas which created the Revolution in people's minds did so
because they convinced people that human beings were better than the
institutions in which they were trapped. Rebelling against authority was
justified. Overturning the institutions was the way to a better world.

Our goal from the first in New Democracy has not been so much to
show that revolution is necessary but that it is possible. It is possible
because most people reject the savage, greedy, competitive, anti-human values of
capitalism and try to live their lives based on a different vision of human life
than the elites who dominate our society.

The Second American Revolution will occur when the American
people come to see the idea of a truly democratic society -- rule "of the people,
by the people, and for the people" -- not as a cant phrase but as an explosive
formula for shattering the iron grip of warmongering, earth-devouring,
anti-human elites on our lives and transforming the world with the best that we
share with each other now. The key is to see ourselves and each other in a new
light -- to see that the people are not the problem in society but the solution.